Heaven or Purgatory

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doanli

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This has been bothering me for a bit…

My mother passed away from sudden heart failure (it just stopped beating). When my dad found her, he did CPR, the medics arrived and got her heart beating again. However, her brain was starved of oxygen so she was in a severe vegetative state.

**Per her wishes, we discontinued life support after consulting with our priest. He gave her the Last Rites and absolved her of all of her sins. (without confession because it was obviously impossible)

My question is, by Father absolving her of her sins (in Jesus’s name for all non-Catholics out there), is she now in Heaven? She wouldn’t have had to go to Purgatory?**

I have a feeling the answer is Heaven because we have had her pray to help us in a couple of things and it was answered (meaning yes!)

And I don’t care, but I talk to her everyday telling her I love her and asking her to pray for us.

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory too!!!
 
I’d speak with a priest about this. Priests have powerful words, and many times Jesus speaks through His Representatives.
 
My condolences.

I’m not a priest but I’m familiar with what happens. Last Rites involves Anointing of the Sick, Penance and Viaticum (Eucharist). If the recipient is unconscious, as was the case with your mother, then a conditional absolution is performed instead of Penance. A conditional absolution assumes that the dying person had contrition for any unconfessed mortal sins. If they did not, then the conditional absolution has no effect.

The once-in-a-lifetime Apostolic Blessing which is a part of Last Rites confers a plenary indulgence, under the norms for indulgences. All of her temporal punishment will have been remitted if she was properly disposed, meaning she would have gone directly to heaven. If she was not properly disposed to receive a plenary indulgence then it acted as a partial indulgence, with only a part of her temporal punishment (determined by God) remitted.

An unconscious person unable to give a proper confession or receive Viaticum before death may not be properly disposed for a plenary indulgence. They may not be properly disposed for any indulgence at all. Only God knows for sure how efficacious a given indulgence is.

I would take the advice of Eucharisted and talk to a priest if you have any concens, but since all the souls in purgatory will be in heaven eventually there really isn’t anything to be concerned about. My guess is the advice you receive will probably be to pray for the repose of her soul rather than presuming she’s experiencing the Beatific Vision. Prayers are never wasted.
 
I am sorry about the loss of your Mom. As Catholics, we know that apart from canonized Saints, we cannot say for sure who is in Heaven (or for that matter who is in Hell). What we can do is trust is Jesus that He will walk with us to the end. He was there when your mom got ill, He was there during the CPR, He was there in the room during the last rites and He was there when you disconnected the life support.

The advice to talk to your Priest is the best we can give. Until you talk to your Priest, know this: God is love. Infinite love and infinite mercy. And God is not bound by our time. If His will be that mom go to Heaven, she is there. And if you think she is there, maybe that’s her guardian angel giving your guardian angel a “heads up”.

I will pray for your mom tonight and for you in your loss. Take care of dad too and we’ll pray for him.
 
Always operate under the assumption that any soul is in purgatory and pray the rest of one’s life for that soul. To presume that a soul is in heaven, and therefore not pray accordingly for that soul, is both presumption and negligence. If the soul is already in heaven, the prayers will help another soul who needs them.
 
Please understand that Purgatory is NOT hell with a timer attached. It is more like Heaven’s finishing school. Heaven is actually a place of perfection: no injury, no suffering, no cruelty. The entire population is pefected. But God doesn’t deprive them of their free will to get them there like some sort of cosmic puppetmaster. Rather, whatever imperfections remain in the person at the time of death need to be cleansed via Grace fully embraced before we can enter Heaven (or we’ll wreck the place just like we did Earth). It isn’t punishment in the earthly/judicial sense, it is sanctification.

In either case, I suspect it is just fine to ask your mother for her prayers. It just may be that including her such will help her on her way to entering heaven (if she’s not already living it up!).

God bless you and your family in this hard time.
 
Please understand that Purgatory is NOT hell with a timer attached. It is more like Heaven’s finishing school.
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We do not know, as the Church has never defined the nature of purgatory. Different saints, including some who claimed to have had visions or locutions, have given different accounts, and none of which are authoritative, any more than the above claim.
 
I am sorry for your mothers death and I hope everyone is doing all right. First of all I would like to say that your mother is likely to be in heaven with the Lord. With having the priest free her from sins, she was forgiven and clean of those sins also.

I would like to highly recommend to you that you pray for her in oder to guarantee that she can reside in heaven. Please offer her some masses and Rosary’s for her soul for if she is in Purgatory, ( if she is in there she’s likely to be in the “almost out” stage) that will help her A LOT and free her soul very quickly from there. The masses in her name and the Rosary’s prayed for her will help purify her soul and banish sin allowing entrance for her in heaven. May the Lord bless you and good luck!👍
 
doanli:

My condolences.

One who dies absolved enters heaven directly or is further cleansed in purgatory.

Purgatory is similar to the case of a child who breaks a favored vase. The child is forgiven but must make amends by having to pay it out of his allowance.

Purgatory should be good news to those who find themselves there, has this is the indicator that they have been accepted to heaven but need further cleansing. Angels, and in particular their guardian angel make visits of reassurance while they are there. Some have said the saints visit also and that includes the Holy Mother. They receive indicators that they are not totally abandoned.

Consider that perhaps God graced this postponement just so she can receive absolution. It could very well be she was a favorite of the Virgin Mary, because that is one of her promises for those who are devoted to her.

AndyF
 
I just wanted to thank y’all for all the responses here. Thank you for helping me remember things about our Faith. I said a couple of decades of the Rosary before Mass today, it is something I need to get back into.

But now, there are more losses. We are losing BOTH of our priests and we don’t know who will come after them. I am especially fond of our pastor, and this just breaks my heart because he has played a part in warming me up back into the Church. Please pray that we get a very good, holy, and strong man in his place.

God bless you all…please keep me and mine in your prayers and I will remember everyone here on this Forum in mine.

JMJ +,

D.
 
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